National Football League

The first thing you hear is quiet. The commercials, by design, are an oasis in the middle of a Sunday afternoon resonating with noisy stadiums and somebody screaming at you to buy a truck. "People getting up to get a beer notice that the TV has suddenly gone soft," said producer-director Mario Pellegrini. "They stop and say, 'What is that?' " The next thing you hear is the tinkling of a piano, or the moan of a violin, or, if the objective is big-time tears, music from the song, "Memories."

From San Diego -- It's been so long, I almost forgot what a scam this is. Here it is NFL opening Sunday, and a fine day it is. The grass is green, the seats an eye-catching blue with banners and flags waving everywhere in this picturesque stadium. This appears to be the ideal home eight or nine days a year for any football team and its loyal following, but then this is the National Football League. Remember what that was like 17 years ago? Now as you know, the folks who work in the National Football League never say "NFL," lest someone think the National Football League really isn't something special.

David Boss, 67, who as vice president of publishing and creative services for the National Football League started "PRO!" magazine, which served as the league's preprint in all game day programs and exists now as "NFL Insider." Trained as a photographer, Boss graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Arts and came to Los Angeles, working for the Los Angeles Rams and the team's public relations director and then-general manager Pete Rozelle.

In a political twist few officials appear to have anticipated, the proposed downtown National Football League stadium could require an approval from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, not just officials at City Hall. A Times review of records spanning nearly half a century of financial and development issues involving the Los Angeles Convention Center, where the stadium would be built, shows that the county board has had to consider and vote on a range of city proposals involving the complex.

Super Bowl Sunday arrived in China's capital at daybreak Monday, but by kickoff it was standing room only at the Goose 'n' Duck, a British-style sports pub near sprawling Chaoyang Park in east Beijing. The vast majority of the nearly 350 football fans who braved the frigid morning temperatures were expatriate Americans, many already with beer in hand despite the hour.

What, you don't believe they can do it? You doubt that Jacksonville running back Maurice Jones-Drew can be buried up to his neck on a beach, then use his superhuman burst to explode out of a hole five feet deep? You wonder whether Denver quarterback Chris Simms can effortlessly throw passes into trash cans 45 yards away, then pull off the same trick as a can is zipping past on a golf cart? You scoff at the comic-book quickness of New York Giants tight end Kevin Boss, who bends backward Matrix-style to one-hand a pass screaming at his head from point-blank range?

Referees in the National Football League are being instructed to penalize a team for excessive crowd noise only in extreme situations during the 1989 season, Indianapolis Colts General Manager Jim Irsay said. Irsay told a news conference in Indianapolis Friday that Commissioner Pete Rozelle modified but would not order a complete reversal of the controversial rule approved in a vote during the off-season.

A week from Sunday, Carlos Meza will join nearly two dozen friends and family members in front of the TV in his stepfather's tiny second-floor apartment. They'll gather behind tables filled with takeout pizza, tacos and sushi, and coolers filled with beer and soda, to watch the Indianapolis Colts battle the New Orleans Saints for the NFL title. "This year is going to be my 20th Super Bowl in a row," Meza, 28, said proudly. Nothing unusual about that. Last year's Super Bowl telecast drew a record 98.7 million viewers in the United States.

Long before Carson and Los Angeles trotted out grand stadium designs and deep-pocketed backers to battle for a professional football team, another Southern California town taught everyone how not to bargain for an NFL franchise. Quarry-pocked Irwindale, about 18 miles east of downtown and the Los Angeles Coliseum, gave the Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders a $10-million "deposit" a dozen years ago. The city of 1,000 residents lost the cash when the team decided not to move there after all.

Safety Gary Fencik, 33, of the Chicago Bears said he will retire after this season, his 12th in the National Football League.

Tennessee offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger is back at work and will call the plays Sunday when the Titans visit the Houston Texans before starting his treatment for cancer. Coach Jeff Fisher said Thursday that Heimerdinger met with his doctors Wednesday night and will start his treatment Monday. "So obviously he feels good enough to finish up this week and call the game, so we're very, very excited for that and to have him back and keep him involved," Fisher said.

For many NFL prospects, life begins at 40 (yards). Covering that distance in a scorching time -- as Clemson's Jacoby Ford did Sunday at the NFL scouting combine -- can turn the heads of potential employers, just as a slow 40 time can send a player's draft stock into a tailspin. According to an NFL scout who, along with dozens of others, was keeping his own stopwatch on Ford, the 5-foot-8, 182-pound receiver clocked in at hand times ranging between 4.18 and 4.23 seconds. The official (electronic)

In one sense, Florida's Tim Tebow looks like every other high-profile quarterback at the NFL scouting combine. Yet another passer not throwing for the scouts. The challenge for Tebow is to look a little more mainstream. The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner is the most intriguing work in progress in this draft class, a player who is reconstructing his throwing motion to be more NFL-friendly. He's working to eliminate his swooping windup in order to get rid of the ball quicker. An overdue overhaul?

There are more coveted offensive tackles in this NFL draft class, but none with a more compelling story than California's Mike Tepper. By Tepper's count, he told the story 40 times Thursday, the first day of the scouting combine. Most intrigued were NFL team doctors, who snapped to attention when he explained the surgery scars on his lower right leg. "When you do these medical exams downstairs with five or six doctors, they hear you broke your leg and say, 'How'd it happen?

A British rugby player's blood sample emerged this week as a landmark case, the first positive result for human growth hormone in testing by a national sporting anti-doping agency. The athlete, Terry Newton, confessed to using the banned substance and Wednesday, after being slapped with a two-year ban from the game, publicly apologized for his "grave error in judgment." Newton's positive test is expected to be followed shortly by others, a source familiar with worldwide doping programs told The Times on Wednesday.

The No. 1 question heading into this week's NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis is just that -- the No. 1 question. Who will emerge from the combine with the inside track on becoming the top pick in April's draft? Defense is likely to dominate the top of this draft (April 22-24), and the next step in the evaluation process begins Thursday when coaches, scouts and general managers gather at Lucas Oil Stadium to test players. The three top players heading into the combine come from that side of the ball: defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh of Nebraska and Gerald McCoy of Oklahoma, and safety Eric Berry of Tennessee.

Times NFL writer Sam Farmer looks at the 10 most memorable and pivotal games from the 2009 season: Like Old Times 10Think Brett Favre magic is a thing of the past? Not so fast. In a Week 3 game against San Francisco, Minnesota's Favre fired a 32-yard touchdown pass to Greg Lewis with two seconds to play for a 27-24 victory at the Metrodome. It was Favre's 42nd career comeback from fourth-quarter deficits or ties. "It's hard to even recall all of 'em," he said. "This one was pretty special."

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Friday that the league is working hard to reach a new labor agreement, and called "absolutely false" the suggestion by the players' union that team owners stand to benefit from a work stoppage. "You don't make money by shutting down your business," Goodell said at his annual state-of-the-league news conference. "It's a bad scenario for everybody. I can assure you the ownership and I believe the players -- in talking to individual players -- want to get an agreement and want to work to do that.